NYT: Apple's iPad and the Human Cost for Workers

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2012/01/26/business/ieconomy-apples-ipad-and-the-human-costs-for-workers-in-china.xml

"In December, however, seven months after the blast that killed Mr. Lai, another iPad factory exploded, this one in Shanghai. Once again, aluminum dust was the cause, according to interviews and Apple's most recent supplier responsibility report. That blast injured 59 workers, with 23 hospitalized.

"It is gross negligence, after an explosion occurs, not to realize that every factory should be inspected," said Nicholas Ashford, the occupational safety expert, who is now at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "If it were terribly difficult to deal with aluminum dust, I would understand. But do you know how easy dust is to control? It's called ventilation. We solved this problem over a century ago." "
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More fun with HDR

These photo apps are not very stable. It's rebooted my phone twice.

Wonderful warm weather today in the low 70's. Pretty nice for January, huh?

Pro HDR Camera for Android

This was a very challenging shot, basically backlit. The afternoon sun is very bright and coming from left of center. The audience is in the shade and not illuminated. The typical result would be either underexposed audience, or overexposed sky, in short a worthless shot. Pro HDR Camera did a great job of evening out out exposure.

HzO waterproofing

I was hoping this was an aftermarket treatment to waterproof phones, because I've lost 3 phone to the tub or toilet. But this was a waterproofing process for circuit boards after the chips are mounted. I'm doubtful whether this is really helpful. I'm guessing the worst damage is corrosion inside the miniature connector jacks which can't be reached by coatings which would compromise electrical conductivity anyways.

The ability to waterproof a phone would be very valuable, but I don't know of a solution. I don't mean a screen protector, i mean seal the battery compartment and all the seams while leaving all the ports and battery contacts untouched.

Murata Robot

This funny little robot sort of blew my mind. It has an internal gyroscope that keeps it upright balanced on 2 wheels! The control feedback was very smooth, no back and forth oscillation was visible that kept it upright.

Maybe I have read too much science fiction, but I could see a groups of these driving around on the street, each as large as a small person, waiting at stoplights, carrying out their programmed delivery schedules, not getting mad or flipping people off when getting in accidents, just righting themselves and carrying on, following Asimov's 3 rules of robotics...

The future is today!

From http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Laws_of_Robotics:

"Isaac Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics are introduced in his 1942 short story "Runaround", although they were foreshadowed in a few earlier stories:

1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws."

Automotive electronics

Automotive is one of the next frontiers for electronics integration.

Nvidia showed off an LED panel dashboard and Humongous! 17" touchscreen control panel in a Tesla motorcar.

More details here at Nvidia 's site:
http://pressroom.nvidia.com/easyir/customrel.do?easyirid=A0D622CE9F579F09&version=live&prid=703505&releasejsp=release_157&xhtml=true

Audi demonstrated a gesture-based system for the car. 2 sensors at the base of the windshield detected left, right, up, down swipes to change the "channel" on one of the 3 headsup displays. The display for the passenger was recessed so that the driver couldn't see it. My arms (and those of many other women or short people) can't comfortably reach the dashboard area. I'm sure this is just a concept but I hope they'll take into account the ergonomics of more than just tall German males.

Ford also showed some new concepts but I didn't see them.

Samsung Galaxy Nexus vs White Galaxy Note hands-on [Video] | Android Community

http://androidcommunity.com/samsung-galaxy-nexus-vs-white-galaxy-note-hands-on-video-20111027/

For me, the most exciting device of CES was the Samsung Galaxy Note.
This 5.3" bad boy was specifically designed to be a portable notebook. It has a built-in Wacom digitizer just like the Wacom tablets. The stylus action is smooth, precise, and high resolution, which blows away any capacitive display/stylus combo. In fact I read that the Samsung Galaxy Tab 's display simply does not work with capacitive styluses at all (it should but does not). One of the attached images is from the Galaxy Note. It shows how small you can write on the screen. Enlarge that picture to 5.3" diagonal to see the actual size. Amazing.

At the show in the main foyer Samsung had artists using the Note to do portrait sketches. Then they'd print the sketches on a tshirt for you. There was a long line to get your portrait done. Boy, Samsung sure knows how to market their stuff.

The one downside of this device is that there is no backend integration to Evernote or Dropbox or OneNote or the Cloud. You can only email your notes to yourself. In 2012, this is lame. I suppose the excuse is "a future app would be able to do this. " It would be perfect for the Note to sync notes to a folder in OneNote. Then at least I can cut and paste. Microsoft One Note can already handle mingled sketches and text.

Also, the handwriting recognition sucked. My HP touchscreen laptop runs rings around it. But, I don't know that I need realtime HR as long as the text is searchable.

The comparison: Galaxy Nexus Prime vs Galaxy Note

- 2x 1.2 Ghz vs 2x 1.4 GHz
- Android 4 Ice Cream Sandwich vs 2.3 Gingerbread (the Note will be upgraded to ICS)
- 4.65" vs 5.3" display + Wacom digitizer + stylus
- both have Super AmoLED display at 1280 800 resolution
- both have 1000MB RAM and 32GB user storage

And most importantly:
- 5MP vs 8MP rear camera
- no uSD vs uSD
- 1850mAhr vs 2500mAhr battery

It's beautiful in white. Unfortunately, it's about $700 for an unlocked device, until it's released in the US.

Gadgets from San Diego at CES

http://m.utsandiego.com/news/2012/jan/13/san-diego-firms-make-splash-ces/

VIASAT, Tagg, Mirasol...

Mirasol is a new color e-ink technology that produces limited color gamut but has fast refresh rate (for videos). Additionally uses very little power. The first applications are for Chinese e-readers.

Vegas

Sorry guys, haven't had time to get CES stuff onto blog. Laptop can't connect to Internet.

55" OLED TV (Sony)

You are looking at 3 TVs here, one edge-on. Rumor has it $20k for the set and yes it will be on the market in the fall.

Mark and Jodie

Well, OK, I see Jodie's timeline. I think her claims of harassment seem genuine and there was no meaningful delay before she lodged a complaint. I think she just wanted an apology, and her lawyer wanted a bunch of money. From all of her comments to the press, and she seemed like a somewhat naive person. I think she genuinely didn't mean for him to lose his job. She probably wouldn't have done it if she knew what was going to happen. I feel sorry for her because I've seen ladies at work in high tech fight this kind of battle. What they are usually looking for is vindication, someone to say she is right and he is wrong. Unfortunately, the workplace outcome is not at all like that of a courtroom. HR will indeed render a verdict, but it won't be made public. And her manager and peers may not agree with her either (or be willing to take sides) about who was in the right. I've even seen jokes cracked at retirement gatherings *at work* about how frequently the guy had been called down to personnel, as if it were all just a big joke.
Then the two colleagues will be left to pick up the pieces. Sometimes the "perp" just dials down his behavior to avoid triggering future calls to HR. Sometimes - not always - one of the people leaves the company. Usually the woman, but not always. It's not satisfying. And always awkward.
So I feel sorry for Jodie. But at least she got some cash out of it.

Hurd? He got what he deserved. The reported behavior aligns perfectly with his public persona - arrogant condescending and entitled.

Then again she could just a fame whore, but if that was the case, she'd have her own reality show by now.

Web traffic suggests Apple's iPad was a dud this holiday season

http://m.bgr.com/2012/01/06/web-traffic-patterns-suggest-apples-ipad-was-a-dud-this-holiday-season/

"Advertising network Chitika saw traffic across its network from the Kindle Fire grow roughly 20% each day leading up to Christmas, and traffic then exploded by more than 120% between December 24th and 25th. Research In Motion's BlackBerry PlayBook saw the second biggest spike on Christmas Day, up just over 50% thanks to deep discounts during the holiday shopping season, and Samsung's Galaxy Tab line of tablets saw traffic jump about 15% on the 25th. Traffic from Apple's iPad didn't increase at all on Christmas Day, suggesting that rival tablets may have had an even bigger impact on holiday iPad sales than previously predicted.

"Though the iPad's lead over the other tablets is strong, it was not the tablet with the most impressive spike in traffic after the wrapping paper had all come off Christmas morning," Chitika's Haze Jayachandran wrote in a post on the company's blog. "The PlayBook's 50% jump in traffic Christmas day might just be the thing to help with RIM's recent struggles. The real victor in the season's tablet wars, though, has to be the Kindle Fire and its 122% traffic spike from the 24th to the 25th. If more than doubling your usage overnight doesn't say Christmas Spirit, we don't know what does." "

Kindle Fire sells 4 million devices, may have cost Apple $1 billion or more in holiday iPad sales

http://m.bgr.com/2012/01/03/kindle-fire-cost-apple-1-billion-or-more-in-holiday-ipad-sales/

" Amazon's new Kindle Fire was a hot item during the holiday shopping season, and one analyst believes the new Amazon tablet may have cost Apple well over $1 billion in holiday iPad sales. Morgan Keegan analyst Travis McCourt on Tuesday lowered his December-quarter iPad sales estimate from 16 million units to 13 million. Hot sales of the Kindle Fire ahead of the holidays are responsible for trimming sales of Apple's iPad by between 1 million and 2 million units, the analyst believes, making Amazon's new slate the main reason for McCourt's slashed forecast. Read on for more.

On the low end of McCourt's estimate, the Kindle Fire cost Apple at least $500 million considering the iPad 2′s $500 entry-level price point. If the Kindle Fire was indeed responsible for cutting iPad sales by 2 million units, Amazon tablet sales cost Apple a minimum of $1 billion. Considering the range of available iPad 2 models that sell for between $500 and $830 each, however, that figure would likely be significantly higher.

Amazon announced last week that it sold more than 4 million Kindles during the holiday shopping season, noting that the Kindle Fire was its most popular device. McCourt believes total Kindle Fire sales for the 2011 holiday shopping season were between 4 and 4.5 million"

10660 Strait Lane Dallas 75229, Home For Sale Dallas Real Estate Briggs Freeman Sotheby's International Realty

http://www.briggsfreeman.com/search/property-details.asp?pn=13868

I just love me some high end real estate. Check out the 2 story wine cellar, separated from the dining room by a wall of glass. It's sheer poetry, i tell you.

And yes, that is the closet, so large it needs 2 flights of stairs and spectator seating.

And every carport needs a piece of art, don't you think?

The listing agent herself is at a loss for words; no single word can encompass its magnificence, she must use three; she describes the house as "perhaps... Italian or modern or Southwestern... "

Found via secondshelters.com

I'll tell you why movie revenue is dropping... :: rogerebert.com

http://www.rogerebert.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20111228/COMMENTARY/111229973/

"Consumers are finding devices that easily play internet movies through TV sets. Netflix alone accounts for 30% of all internet traffic in the evening. That represents millions of moviegoers."